EAA Chapter 168 congratulates Richard Wingfield for his August 13th maiden flight of his just completed RV-14. The speeds and handling are exactly what Vans Aircraft has advertised with the 210 hp Lycoming IO-390. A little bigger engine for a little bigger airframe yields the same as the previous RVs. The flight was uneventful and everything worked as expected. The big challenge was getting the Garmin G3X touch system configured. And Richard is really excited about the performance of that panel.
Richard was early to order his slow (QB was not available) build kit. Yet Vans was a little slow to get the final kits out after the 2012 Oshkosh debut. So there was about six-month delay in getting this RV-14 into the air. According to Vans website there are now 12 RV-14s flying with the tail wheel version like Richards being only a couple.
As to a little background, this is Richards third RV. The first being an RV-6 that he bought in the early 1900s. It was an incredible build completed in Georgetown and was the first in Texas. The second was an RV-8 that he built in the 2010-time frame. And now this RV-14.
Finally, Richard held an appreciation dinner for all the help he received on this RV-14. As someone said, the restaurant parking lot was full of cars. But the table only included eleven people, all from either Chapters 168 or 1246. This is a good example of how aviation people with amazing talents are more than happy to help someone get their airplane into the air. The RV-14 is a different breed from previous RVs so sometime we need to get Richard to tell us the story.
